Movie Night Confessions
by fallenangel860
Summary: Will talks Nico into watching a movie with unintended consequences. It's a bit fluffy pre-Solangelo. Please review if you like. )


***If you recognize it I don't own it.**

Nico cautiously opened the door to the infirmary. Will's sister Kayla looked up from where she was sitting at a desk in the corner filling out some paperwork. "Oh! Hey Nico." Nico gave her a small smile. He'd become a familiar face since his 3 day stay and had been helping out. "If you're looking for Will he's not here today." A light blush crept into Nico's cheeks. "We finally had to force him to take some time off."

Nico shrugged. "I can still help if you need me." In honesty he was disappointed that Will wasn't around but he wasn't about to let Kayla know that.

Kayla smiled. "Thanks for the offer, but as you can see there really isn't much to do at the moment." For the first time since he'd arrived Nico looked around the infirmary. For the first time in a long time all of the beds were empty. "Will mentioned having something he wanted to show you. You should go and find him." Kayla gave him a smirk.

"Ok. Sure. Thanks Kayla." Nico turned and opened the door to leave.

"No problem Nico. Don't be a stranger." She called out after him.

Nico smiled to himself. He remembered how apprehensive he'd been to stay at the infirmary, worried that his presence would disturb the other campers, particularly those in need of medical attention. As it was most of the campers hadn't even noticed him. The Apollo kids working at the infirmary had even become pretty friendly with him, especially once Will had allowed him to start helping. For once, Nico could actually see himself being accepted at camp, not just because he'd helped save the world again, but because people were getting to know him.

Nico knocked on the door to the Apollo cabin. A boy that Nico recognized as Will's brother Austin answered and called for Will before Nico could say a word. Nico stood awkwardly outside of the cabin wondering what he would say. He hadn't actually thought this through. He had no real reason to see Will. Usually he used helping in the infirmary as an excuse. He tried to think of what he could say when Will appeared over Austin's shoulder. "Thanks Austin," He told the younger boy as he walked away. Will turned to Nico. "I'm glad you came by, Nico. I have something I want to show you," he said waving a disk in the air. "You feel up for a movie?"

Nico didn't know what else to do so he shrugged. The corner of his mouth twitched up. "Sure. Why not?"

"Do you have a tv and dvd player in the Hades cabin?" He asked. Nico screwed up his face in confusion. "I mean, if not that's fine, or if you'd rather we can just watch it here." Will gave him a goofy smile.

"Uh, no, it's fine. We can watch it in my cabin." Nico replied awkwardly.

"Great!" Will said grabbing Nico's hand and pulling him along toward cabin 13. Nico jerked his hand out of Will's grasp causing the older boy to stop suddenly and look at him with concern.

Nico looked away uncomfortably. "Sorry." He muttered.

Will brushed him off. "It's ok. I forgot, you don't like to be touched. Come on. Let's go watch this," he said waving the disk again.

Nico pushed open the door to cabin 13 and led Will inside. Will made a beeline for the dvd player as Nico rummaged in a minifridge in the corner. "You want something to drink, Will?" He asked.

Will shook his head. "No thanks." He set the dvd on the tray and grabbed the remote. Nico had already flopped onto the couch and curled up sideways in one corner, with his lower back pressed against the armrest and his knees pulled up to his chest with his arms wrapped around him. Will studied him a moment. He always seemed to curl up into a ball, he thought, like he was still trying to disappear. It was a habit now, he reasoned, and habits were hard to break so he brushed the thought aside.

"So what are we watching?" Nico asked curiously.

Will sat cross legged on the couch next to Nico. "It's a surprise," he said and pressed play.

As soon as the movie began Nico started to complain. "Don't you think we're a little old for cartoons, Will?"

Will feigned offense. "It's not a cartoon, it's stop motion animation. And you're never too old for cartoons, so shut up and watch the movie." He added

Nico grunted and sank down into his seat. The movie hadn't been on for more than 10 minutes before he complained again. "Seriously, Will? Is this your idea of a bad joke?"

"What?" Will seemed honestly perplexed.

"Are you serious? It's a cartoon about a kid who talks to ghosts and has like no friends." He said annoyed. "This is what you were so excited for me to watch? I don't have to watch a movie about this kind of thing, I've lived it." Will's face fell and Nico immediately felt bad for being so critical. In all honesty he knew that Will hadn't been trying to mock him. He probably actually thought that Nico would enjoy it.

"Well, I admit, there might be a few parallels with you, but it's really a good movie," He said dejectedly.

Nico sighed. "Sorry. I didn't mean to get mad. I know you didn't mean anything by it. Why don't we just finish it?"

Will brightened. "Thanks for giving it a chance at least. Besides, there's a lesson to be learned at the end."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"You'll have to wait and see. Now be quiet and stop interrupting every 5 minutes."

Nico smiled. He tried, but couldn't help but make snarky comments. "Oh sure, now he's robbing corpses. At least I've never done that. I think this kid might be a bad influence... And now he's raising the dead."

"He didn't raise the dead, it was the witches curse."

"So you're saying it's some Hectate kid raising the dead? Because that's not even something they do."

"Nico, it's a movie. It's not a demigod thing. Just let it happen."

"What's the rating on this movie anyway?" He asked.

"PG, why?"

"Seriously? They must've made a dozen references to things that I'm pretty sure kids under 13 shouldn't even know about already." He said at one point, though he was exaggerating slightly.

Will sighed and began to wonder if this was a good idea after all. "They do that a lot these days Nico. I think it's so that parents aren't too bored and can have a laugh when they have to watch movies with their kids. It's fine as long as its not too risque and mostly goes over kids heads."

"So this is your big lesson?" Nico said as the movie neared its ending. "People fear what they don't know but if they just get to know you everything will be roses and sunshine? You're a sap."

Will smiled. "I might be a sap, but it's true."

Nico rolled his eyes and took a sip of his Coke which he promptly nearly choked on. As he began coughing uncontrollably Will jumped up and slapped him on the back, not knowing what else to do. Nico pushed him away and eventually the coughing died down, though his eyes were still wide. Will looked freaked out. "Nico? Is everything ok? What happened?"

Nico gulped in air. "I'm fine," he said still sputtering. "What the hell was that? They put that in a kids show? Someone allowed that in a kids show?"

It was Will's turn to look confused. "Nico, what are you talking about? Nothing happened." Nico's face was red. "Are you sure you're ok? You look a bit flustered."

Nico nodded. "Yeah. Really, I'm fine. I'm just... surprised."

"I don't think I understand. What are you so surprised about that it could cause you to nearly choke to death on your soda?"

Nico grew redder and had trouble looking at Will. "It's just... the guy at the end, Mitch or whatever his name was, just said he had a boyfriend. Like its no big deal. In a kids movie!" He looked away from Will, embarrassed to even be talking about the subject with him. Sure, a few people knew about him now, and he'd been told that it wasn't a big deal, but it was still a bit hard sometimes trying to reconcile that times really had changed as much as everyone was always telling him they had. "When I was growing up no one would even talk about that. Not unless you wanted to get locked up anyway."

Will laughed. "Yeah, well, it's not a big deal now. Sure, some people don't appreciate being confronted with the fact that gay people exist, but it's something they need to learn to deal with." Nico could feel Will pointedly looking at him when he said that last part. "It's not like we're going to go away just because they don't like it."

Nico's head snapped up and he was looking directly into Will's eyes. "We?" He asked. How did he know? Had Percy or Annabeth told him? He didn't think it would have been Jason.

"Gay people, like me," Will clarified. He was studying Nico now. Waiting to see how he would respond.

His first thought was, _so Will doesn't know_. His second was, _Will is gay?_ Nico could barely get the words out. "You? You're..." he swallowed hard, "gay?" The word stuck in his throat and barely came out. It was the first time he'd actually said it.

Will nodded. "Yeah. Does that bother you?"

 _Bother me?_ He thought, _you might as well have just told me that I actually have a shot with you, I'm ecstatic!_ "Uh... no." He paused. "Um, Will?" He looked down at his sneakers.

"Yeah Nico?"

"Me too."

 **If you were wondering, the movie they're watching is ParaNorman**


End file.
